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[The Netocrat]

I'm still unsure how the public will perceive this game.

Luna's Wandering Stars a physics puzzle game about a character stuck as the god of a simulation, bored of immortality. The player interests him and he tries to have a real relationship with you, despite it being a one-way communication.

You never see this character; he only communicates through a Turing Test-esque chat. I've seldom seen 2D puzzlers with deep stories, so I have no idea if an audience is even there. On the other hand, I don't know any other game like it, so it might be praised as something new.

I tried to treat the script as literature and I'm worried that gamers don't want that. I'd love to be proven wrong!



http://serenityforge.com/games/lunaswanderingstars.html

[feglk]

I don't have the money to try the game, but it looks really good! One thing I would say in response to the post is that (for me) stories make a puzzle game far more playable. However addictive a puzzle game, I get this annoying feeling I am wasting my time playing them - complete one level, move on to the next level, the progression feels a lot more arbitary when compared to uncovering a story.

Yet take a game like portal, and imagine it without the story - It wouldn't have been as interesting. They took an interesting concept for a level-based puzzle game, and wrote a story to give it a context, and add an extra dimension to it. Without the story I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. Or thomas was alone - the gameplay tiself was fun, if a relatively basic 2D platformer. Add the story and you have something special

Soooooo... I imagine you made the right choice

[Runefrog]

I think gameplay needs to comes first, always. Most gamers keep playing a game for the gameplay, and not to reach the end of a story. Story is still important though. Most puzzle games lack a plot and it can make the gameplay feel pointless, even if it is fun.

I'm not sure gamers like prose either. When I see prose in a game I have to stop what I'm doing to read it. If it's a large block of text I'll probably ignore it. Gamers like bite-size bits that can be digested while they're not distracted by the gameplay.

This is why I don't oppose cut scenes. They give the gamer a chance to relax and refocus in a safe zone, and as long as the cut scenes aren't epic-long (like MGS or FF) they can work really well to convey plot.

[The Netocrat]

The game was in fact designed with gameplay first. The story was designed around our experience of watching people test the game and being mentors to the players. All of the story comes in bite-sized bits, which rarely feel like a daunting amount of text.

The thing I'm most concerned about is the subtlety of the narrative. If you're only reading every other level's text, or even skimming, you might miss a revelation.

[Runefrog]

That's the sacrifice with games. It's frustrating when you put all this work into it and it gets ignored because it feels optional.

I find RPGs on the GameBoy really boring because when long dialogue scenes take place you're literally spending the whole time staring at frozen pixels and walls of text. If your game avoids that (unless it's intentional during relaxed periods) it should be fine if people choose to pay attention.